Smitty the picture of that chimney scares the crap outa me.I was in a similar situation as one of the other posters in that when i had this dual flue 12 brick chimney built 6 years ago the liner was mandatory for solid fuel acceptance,maybe the best idea is to haul out the liner and just go with the brick and no liner,i get good draft. Regards mills4135

I was nervous the first night I lit the stove back in '05, mainly because I had to go to work for 16 hours and couldn't monitor the thing. Was worried about killing the 2 cats (now 4 cats ..) . After a couple days of burning with no issues, I was fine. I never even cleaned that chimney once until April of '12 - that was 9 years after we moved in ... and who knows when the previous owner cleaned it. I was always petrified of burning wood in it ... but I did that the past 2 springs - no fires, and no sparks escaping.

Hello Smitty; No question about it she is definitely in better shape then it looks you have proven that.If that chimney has no liner then i should be ok running my 6 year old brick with no liner? Regards mills4135

You had a new chimney built without a tile liner? there's no orange clay tile in there? That would be unusual for a mason to do these days. Regardless, yes, your stack is better without the stainless steel liner.

Helio Berlin; Yes that is correct it had to be to code or my insurance was no good,i had a cement block chimney with a tile liner built in the70's and was thinking of extending it when i made the 2nd storey addition but it was no longer code and could not be altered that is how i came to having a 2 flue brick with S.S. liner built to satisfy the change in code.I'm in Canada just about 1 half mile from the U.S. border that Maine and New Brunswick share. Regards mills4135

Hello Lightning;Cant get pictures at this time,to much snow and it's about 35 feet up then you need a step ladder it would be a summer time thing,to clean it out you have to stand on top of it and put around 35' of fibreglass rod and brush down thru it from the top. It is about10' high after it comes out through the roof.I have been mixing a little Redding Anthracite with the wood on extremely cold nights for about the last 3 seasons probably around 500 pounds a season and have seen no deterioration,i realize this may be to small an amount to cause harm short term use Regards mills 4135